Thanks to Mrs TW for these pics, she took some really great photos with my crappy little pocket camera. I know getting camera duty kind of sucks, but they way I look at it, the person with the camera gets to tell the story, so we get to see the event through Wendy's eyes, and I think she did a great job of capturing it. I can't thank you enough.

On to the photos ...

Setting up at our start row, I like getting the bike up there early to get the start position I want. Also, if the bike is up there, that means I won't be fiddling with it back at the pit and change something I should have left well enough alone.

Back at the pit, Erek's and TD's bike are getting worked over by the pit crew.

While the ladies were catching up and enjoying the nice day.

About time to gear up, here I am putting on my boots. Yeah I know ... you have to look close, but I'm actually in this photo somewhere.

Tree Dodger and Nobrakes - friends in the pits, mortal enemies on the track. j/k TD is a good guy! He passed me clean ... twice. Unlike that ncTB fella.

Erek, TreeDodger, Nobrakes, and TD's buddy. Little did we know what lay in wait for us out on the course.

Up at the starting area.

Yep, the helmet still fits.

A sea of bikes, we are out in that chaos somewhere:

The launch:

Tree Dodger coming up by the pit area:

Nobrakes coming up by the pit area:

The track looped back up by, this is a few minutes later on the same lap:

Tree Dodger's buddy getting advice on which line to take. The smart riders in this race listened to bystanders and took the lines they pointed out. Take the wrong line and you'll likely spend the next 20 minutes trying to get your bike unstuck:

Nobrakes in the middle, with TD in front, same area. I remember that spot precisely, there was a big buried root right there that my back wheel is about to go over.

Nobrakes in front, TreeDodger close behind and getting a little sideways. That spot is slick, I did the same thing TD is doing the lap before, so this time around I was ready for it. This is such a cool shot - as gnarly as that track was, this was toward the end of the first lap and we both had our fair share of issues. At least I know I got pretty severely stuck once real bad that lap that held me up, not sure about TD but I assume he did the same at a different place, but here we are near the end of lap 1 and we are in the same frame. We couldn't have planned it that way if we had tried.

Nobrakes on the MX track. The MX track conditions were perfect. Definitely cannot say the same for the rest of the course. But it was fun, as brutal as it was.

Post race, just pulled in, man that was a lot of mud and the course was certainly the hardest conditions that I've ever ridden.

Not sure who this is, is this Erek? If so, ouch dude! Did you do that during the race?

Trophy - what a hard race. I didn't finish that great, I felt like I could have done a whole lot better if only for two bad choices that cost me a whole lot of time getting my bike unstuck. But apparently a lot other people had similar troubles, so when it was all factored into account, my finish was good enough for a trophy. I must say, my spirits lifted 3 fold back at the number crunching station where they posted the official results and where I learned that bit of news.

And after a whole lot of spraying and scrubbing I got all my gear and the bike cleaned up today. She sure looks perty all cleaned up, if I must say so myself:

The money shot:

And best one of all, one with my sponsor logos - VIU Racing, and AREA 51. It sure was great having a cheering section - it don't get much better than that. You don't realize how much that lifts your spirits when you feel like you can't go through one more mud bog, but then to come around and hear the encouragement, it's a big morale booster! That was a first for me. And never having had one, I didn't know what I was missing. Thanks again!